The Violet Hour

A collection of lyrical and fantastical abstractions by Mile Šaula.

Mile Šaula is a painter of fantastic lyricism, exploring the unconscious and the presences outside of the visible world. His early work was marked by interest in abstraction, shamanistic drawings, signs on ancient Greek and Bosnian stone slabs, as well as mediaeval and street art. Since 2004, he exhibits regularly with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in Paris, where he twice received the award Prix Marin (2006, 2011).

The Violet Hour contains his most recent work – all created in 2017 – and it engages the viewer in the loose language of forms and signs, aiming to capture the elevated reality where paintings serve as guides that allow the viewer to discover their own contemplative states. The Violet Hour is the hour of melancholy ambivalence, the time entre chien et loup or gloaming, restless under the electric currents of fireflies. Verging on abstraction, the compositions are guided by the gestural brushstrokes, foregrounding the materiality of paint while also recalling the historic associations with the romantic and fantastic painting.